-- THE HAGUE -- The Netherlands is extending its military mission in the Afghan province of Uruzgan to August 2010. After that, the mission will be wound down, with the last man to leave by 1 December 2010.

Much like Steffi and Taliban Jack, the Dutch opposition has decided to have it's own little tea party.

The Socialist Party (SP), leftwing Greens (GroenLinks) and centre-left (D66) will likely be the only parties to vote against an extension. They are holding separate hearings on 6 December with opponents of the military presence in Afghanistan.

-- MONTREAL -- Paul Martin's attempt to turn his countryside retreat into a six-hole golf course has landed the former prime minister in an environmental sand trap.

Mr. Martin, who envisions teeing off with friends on his estate's own fairways, has run afoul of municipal authorities in the town of Lac Brome for improperly cutting down trees on his property.

Say it isn't so... I remember all the Fiberal "torque and spin" about what a regular guy ol' Paul was... you know... how he didn't even drive a flashy new car.

The former PM, who once called safeguarding the environment "a fundamental value," also had the work done before obtaining the blessing of Quebec's farmland protection authorities.

And Quebec's agricultural protection agency is chilly to the project. In a preliminary opinion in September, commissioners turned down the change in designation because they fear it could set a precedent.

Sorry, Doc... there's just no putting the tech genie back in the bottle...

Donald L. Shifrin, a pediatrician based in Seattle and the spokesman for the academy, said tech toys cannot replace imaginative play, where children create rich narratives and interact with peers or parents.

“Are we creating media use as a default for play?” Dr. Shifrin asked. “When kids want to play, will they ask, ‘Where’s the screen?’”

My 11 year old son has been using computers since grade one. It's simply a part of his life. His latest big thing is a game called "Wildlife Zoo" and you'd best not try to get in between him and his growing colony of animal charges.

You have to wonder, though... how will a generation of tech-savvy kids differ from their parents.

Eric Jorgensen, a programmer at Microsoft, has invented PixelWhimsy, a computer program that allows toddlers to sit at a regular computer and bang away on the keys to create sounds and colors and shapes, but without damaging the computer.

Asmin Jalis, who also works at Microsoft and whose 2-year-old boy, Ibrahim, has been using PixelWhimsy, said his son liked it better than his toy computer. “We have a toy laptop for him, and he knows it’s a fake,” he said.

"Maybe the response to the murders isn't to build more basketball courts. The response to the riots is to arrest the murderers."

The seventh floor of a troubled highrise in Scarborough's northeast end remained under guard yesterday as Toronto Police announced an arrest in the city's latest murder, the fifth such killing in six days.

However, homicide investigators have yet to release any details of the slaying -- Toronto's 79th of the year.

Kwabena Sarfo Duah, 19, surrendered to detectives with his lawyer yesterday, police said. He's charged with second-degree murder in the death of Shaun Williams, 27.

-- KHARTOUM -- A British teacher in Sudan was convicted Thursday of inciting religious hatred for letting her pupils name a teddy bear Muhammed, and she was sentenced to 15 days in prison and deportation to Britain, one of her lawyers said.

Gillian Gibbons could have received 40 lashes and six months in prison in the case.

The U.S. Energy Department said Thursday it was prepared to make oil supplies from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve available to refineries to help offset the disruption in Canadian oil imports caused by an explosion and fire at a vital Enbridge Inc. pipeline in Minnesota.

About having trouble "setting priorities"... so you should ask yourself... while Steffi and the mainstream media lose their minds over 5 taser deaths in a year... what's getting lost in all that noise?

Three years ago a major national study found prescription errors, surgical complications, infections and other medical mistakes were killing as many as 24,000 Canadians annually.

-- VANCOUVER -- Canadian police, eager to sketch a portrait of Robert Dziekanski before his fatal confrontation with taser-equipped officers at Vancouver airport last month, will head to Poland to investigate his last "hours and days."

Asked about topics of interest, Cpl. Carr cited, "the history of the individual, of Mr. Dziekanski, his medical history and any other information that may be important to the various investigations."

Let's get all the cards on the table.

**********

LAST WORD: Welcome... one more time... readers of Canadian Cecilia

Today... CC tastefully uses the tragic accidental deaths of a high school basketball team... to further his profane, obscure agenda.

Of course... it's what he does best.

Remember Canadian Cecilia's message to Wanda Watkins, whose son Lane was killed in Afghanistan?

"With all due respect, Wanda, fuck you and your grief. It's not the job of the rest of Canada to continue to let its soldiers die just so you can sleep better at night."

“Canadian justice,” Mr. Schreiber called out, holding his shackled hands into the air, as police officers escorted him from an unmarked police car.

Well... we're off to a promising start.

And what of the man who would be Court Jester?

Mr. Schreiber could be found in contempt of Parliament if he refuses to speak at the committee. However, Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion said that the penalty for contempt - going to jail - will not likely affect Mr. Schreiber's testimony.

"He is already in prison, we can't worsen his situation. But we still ask for his full co-operation," Mr. Dion said.

Uh, Stef... you can try to reason with a cat... for all the good that will do.

Are you really saying Stephen Harper is responsible for the recent explosive rise in HIV-AIDS infections?

-- CP -- Dr. Julio Montaner, president-elect of the International AIDS Society and director of the B.C. Centre of Excellence for HIV/AIDS... suggested the problem persists because of a failing of political leadership — a shortcoming he believes is also responsible for a lack of effective HIV/AIDS prevention campaigns.

Apparently, personal responsibility isn't a very big part of the equation anymore.

"The problem is that the safer-sex message wears out," he said from Vancouver.

"Coca-Cola sells because every six months they reinvent themselves," Montaner noted. "What about our safer sex campaigns? Hello! First, they are not there. Second, they are boring."

Silly me.

I thought the problem was having unprotected, promiscuous sex with people who already had the disease... but apparently all we really need to beat this thing... are amusing 60 second television jingles delivered by exquisitely dressed spokes-models.

I'm actually on the side of Gomery in this argument. We don't need mandatory minimum sentences.

We simply need to relocate every halfway house in the country to inside the security gated confines of luxury housing developments and high-end apartment buildings - and let the problem of lax sentences solve itself.

Gotta love the irony here... as the Fiberals and Dippers are forced to go with Plan B...

Mr. Walsh said there are two ways that Mr. Schreiber can be in Ottawa on Thursday. The first possibility is to get the co-operation of Mr. Nicholson, who can amend the “surrender order” that was signed in 2004 by former justice minister Irwin Cotler.

Secondly, Mr. Walsh said the House can use its subpoena-like powers and obtain a House order (sometimes called a Speaker's warrant) to get Mr. Schreiber out of the Toronto West Detention Centre.

If only the former Liberal Justice Minister hadn't been so anxious to extradite ol' Karl back to Germany. Or was it the eight wasted days... the Opposition parties have pissed away on cheap, hysterical "political theatre."

I'm lovin' it.

**********

FROM THE COMMENTS:

A sure fire way of keeping Schrieber in Canada is to charge him with offering a bribe. Then a full fledged trial will happen and all those involved with him will be exposed...

VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France — Police will step up security in north Paris suburbs to prevent a third night of unrest, French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Tuesday, promising a firm line against rioters who attack police.

"Those who fire on the police and who beat a police officer nearly to death, are criminals and must be treated like criminals," said Mr. Fillon.

Initially city officials considered basing the whole grade on a peer-group comparison. But Kati Haycock, director of the Education Trust, a Washington research group, warned them off, saying that would send the message that there were different standards for children of different backgrounds.

“We argued as strongly as we could that that’s a terrible idea,” Ms. Haycock said. “In the real world, once kids grow up, they are not just compared to kids that just graduated from the barrio.”

An interesting article, especially when considered in light of the Toronto District Board's recent initiative to explore "race based" schooling.

There are, however, still a few bugs in the system.

The decision to reward schools for advancing the neediest students produced some counterintuitive results. South Bronx Academy for Applied Media, listed by the state as one of its most violent schools, is rated by the city as an A.

It fared well on the report card because while just 17 percent of its students met grade level standards on the state reading test, more than 63 percent had improved from last year.

Not often does a politician get to fix a mistake. Stephane Dion has been given a singularly unique opportunity. Seven months ago, Dion was uncomfortable with May's comments, and said that he thought the comment should have been withdrawn.

C'mon, Steffi... how often does someone float a big, lumbering softball like this, right across the plate...

Now Stephane Dion can state that he is shocked by Elizabeth May's comments, and demand that the comment be withdrawn.

Yes, Stephane Dion is a very lucky politician. Such a rare opportunity. The question is whether he will take advantage of this opportunity.

Because if he doesn't, then he's guilty of failing the same key leadership test not once, but twice.

Richard Steele, who served jail time after cops tapped his phone in the Jane Creba murder probe, was arrested early yesterday in Hamilton after police allegedly found a gun in the car he was travelling in.

Monday, in an internal memo, the CBC communications group invited staff to “say goodbye to Rusty and Jerome in style,” at a midafternoon ceremony at the Graham Spry Theatre, where milk and cookies were served while classic episodes of Friendly Giant ran on a continuous loop.

“While you may have bid farewell to Friendly when you left your childhood behind, this afternoon, you'll have an opportunity to say goodbye to the real Rusty and Jerome,” the memo said.

“After a lengthy stay with us here in the Broadcasting Centre, these iconic creations and other Friendly artifacts, which have been on loan to the CBC museum for many years, will be going home – at the request of the family of the man who made them famous,” the memo said.

None of Mr. Homme's family attended.

In other CBC news, Casey and Finnegan have been spotted visiting a prominent Bay St. law firm.

It was just three months ago that Delane Daley was riddled with gunfire and somehow managed to survive.

But the 18-year-old's refusal to stay away from the Jane and Finch neighbourhood where he grew up, despite the urgings of his mother and others who cared about him, finally caught up with him Sunday night with a bullet to the head.

He said it was too soon to know if the murder of the young man, known as "Spooks" or "Spooky" to his friends, was connected to the attempt on his life in August.

A crowd of youths set police barricades on fire and threw stones and Molotov cocktails at officers, who retaliated with tear gas and rubber bullets.

In Villiers-le-Bel and surrounding areas, youths set fire to 36 vehicles, the area's prefecture said.

It looks as though these "poor youth" were awfully well prepared...

Youths were seen firing buckshot at police and reporters.

A police union official said 38 officers were wounded, including three seriously — one of whom had a shoulder wound after a shot from a hunting rifle pierced his bullet-proof vest. One reporter also was injured.

Fresh off his disastrous "No gun, No Funeral" debacle... newly demoted ex-Attorney General Michael "Sisyphus" Bryant has now been condemned by the Emperor McSlippery, to ceaselessly roll the insurmountable rock of aboriginal demands to the top of the Caledonian mountain.

And you don't have to be a student of the classics to know that, so far... this particular boulder just keeps on rolling back down the consultant-littered hill.

"I want to hear from people," the minister told The Spectator in an exclusive interview. " I certainly don't think that the local problems are going to be solved from Queen's Park."

Yeah, no kidding, huh Mikey? I think your predecessor David Ramsay, over the last couple of years, has proved that thesis pretty thoroughly.

So what do the citizens of Caledonia have to say?

Nolda Hoekert, 52, and her son J.J., 24, were surprised when the minister joined them at their table in the Tim Hortons.

They told him the government has to resolve the dispute, and they also want him to do something about "two-tier justice" -- the belief natives and non-natives are being treated differently by the OPP.

This has been the biggest hurdle in the process to date... so we're not exactly talking startling revelation here.

"I know some cabinet ministers are complaining today that they are not getting the type of people in their office because of these restricting rules.

You know, we should have the best people we can get to do these jobs and these rules are keeping a lot of good people away from the Hill," said Mr. Chretien in an interview with CanWest News Service.

I guess Teflon Jean wants a return to the good old days of "nudge, nudge, wink, wink" that inflicted boondoggles like ADSCAM and the 2 billion dollar Farmer Bob Rifle Registry on an unsuspecting public.

Under prime ministers Jean Chretien and Paul Martin, Liberal-friendly firms were repeatedly accused of trading on their connections to the government to win lucrative consulting work.

Well, Jean... how can I explain this? A government job isn't supposed to be on the job training for greedy, uber-ambitious would-be lobbyists and political power brokers.

The Liberal leader started wildly waving to the aboriginal delegation, pointing to his own chest with both hands and arguing that Baird was trying to take credit for something he himself had done when he was environment minister.

"It was me," he shouted upward to the aboriginal leaders, who looked a bit perplexed by all the gesturing.

25 November 2007

My prediction here, is that Steffi will grow to rue the day he first uttered the name... Karlheinz Schreiber...

Author William Kaplan, an expert on the Brian Mulroney-Karlheinz Schreiber affair, predicts upcoming hearings by a parliamentary committee will be a "gong show."

"He's not going to tell anybody anything until the minister of justice informs the government of Germany that Karlheinz Schreiber, Canadian citizen, will not be returned to Germany", the lawyer and author of two books on the controversy told CTV's Question Period on Sunday.

Most people seem to be overlooking the fact that Schreiber has no alliances or loyalties here... only people, on both sides of the political bus... that he tried to suborn.

That fact appears to be slowly sinking in... even with the previously enthusiastic fiberal cheerleading squad.

Liberal MP Robert Thibault said his party supports a public inquiry, wants Schreiber available for it and wants it to review the Schreiber-Mulroney relationship back to 1980 plus the actions of the current Conservative government.

On "the committee", Thibault said he actually agreed with Kaplan's assessment that "the committee" might not be the best forum.

The committee voted to give its chairman, Liberal MP Paul Szabo, the power he needs to subpoena Mr. Schreiber.

But the NDP's Mr. Martin said he has no faith that Mr. Szabo will use that power effectively. So he is starting his own parallel process of asking for Speaker's warrants, he told CTV's Question Period

"We need to get him here prior to his deportation on the first of December. And I can tell you there are a lot of powerful people in Canada who would rather see the hind end of Mr. Schreiber," Mr. Martin said.

"His list is something like the Hollywood madam - there are a lot of people that are on that list who would rather that list is never exposed."

The Afghan interior ministry said Sunday that the Taliban rebels were smuggling weapons on horses and two cars in the province of Paktia, when NATO and Afghan forces engaged them and called in air support.

Of course, there's a bit of a difference between television mythology... and the brutal reality of the modern battlefield.

Hence the timeless military adage... "Peace through Superior Firepower."

On the basis of an analysis of the same satellite photos, which have been published in the media and on Web sites and are accessible to everyone, he believes that the structure that was attacked and destroyed was not a nuclear reactor.

"In my estimation this was something very nasty and vicious, and even more dangerous than a reactor," says Even.

"All sorts of demands for action are floating around, but most of them seem to have sluiced down the easiest channel, which is to blame the tasers, and talk endlessly about voltage and amps and scientific studies."

"On the way to their favorite Elgin Street Bistro three parliamentarians witness a brutal murder..."

and...

"I think the real reason the left doesn't like Tazers is that it identifies with criminal behaviour. They are afraid THEY will get Tazered in some anti-globalization, pro-Palestinian, Pro-Hezbollah, anti-Capitalism, pro-Chavez, anti-war, pro-environmental riot."

-- GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Hamas said Saturday it was shocked by the Arab states' decision to attend a Mideast peace conference in the U.S. on Monday and it underlined its opposition to talks by warning that it could soon launch a more lethal type of rocket into Israel than seen previously.

Who are these people... and exactly what planet did they come from?

"The announcement of the Arabs that they would participate in the Annapolis conference was a great shock for the Palestinian people," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, said in a statement.

"Participation opens doors for normalization of relations with the Israeli occupiers."

-- OTTAWA -- Some opposition MPs whose parties agreed unanimously three weeks ago to rush the government's omnibus crime bill through a Commons committee are now trying to delete a major provision that requires offenders to prove they are not dangerous to society following a third conviction for designated crimes.

You can jet around the global lecture circuit... earning big bucks for spewing tons of hot, sainted gases... or you can get your hands dirty actually making a difference...

About a year ago, Mr. Mosley started BuyMyBrokeniPod.com and began purchasing, refurbishing and reselling used or broken iPods. Mr. Mosley, who is apparently comfortable around a soldering iron, started the company by posting an iPods-wanted ad on Craigslist.

He has since launched a Web site, hired two employees and fixed over a thousand iPods. He recently renamed his company BuyMyTronics.com as he expanded into iPhones and video game consoles.

Now there's a win-win solution... expand the economy and shrink the toxic waste.

He says his company is profitable but that the venture is not solely about that kind of green. “There’s definitely a market here, but I am keeping leads and toxic wastes out of the ground. They work hand in hand,” he said. “I figure I’ve probably kept thousands of pounds of waste out of landfills.”

-- KABUL -- A suicide bomb on the outskirts of the Afghan capital Kabul on Saturday killed six schoolchildren and wounded three Italians working on an aid project building a bridge, an Interior Ministry spokesman said.

"It was a suicide bomber ... six schoolchildren coming out from school were killed," said Interior Ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashary.

23 November 2007

Nearly a half-century after water fluoridation became widespread, a small but growing number of medical officials and environmentalists are again raising concerns over the practice.

Recent research is suggesting that fluoride may be connected to a number of serious conditions, including the development in teenage boys of osteosarcoma, the rare bone cancer that killed Canadian icon Terry Fox, reduced intelligence levels in children, and impaired thyroid function.

We've been on well water out here in the sticks since 2001, when my son turned five... and that turns out, statistically, to have been a pretty good thing.

Researchers found that boys aged 6 to 8 who were exposed to more fluoridated water were about four times more likely to develop the cancer than those exposed to lower levels. The researchers called their results "remarkably robust."

Fluoridation is based on research from the 1940s, and Mr. Wiles contends that it wouldn't be able to pass a modern risk assessment used for drugs or pesticides.

"We took a look at the science and it was really apparent to us that the current levels of fluoride exposure were unsafe," he said.

Funny though... it looks as though some people have been aware of this for some time.

Toronto's drinking water, after several reductions, now contains half the fluoride it did before 1999, while the province of Quebec cut the recommended amount by 42 per cent in 2004.

A teenager accused of gunning down Jason Huxtable stood stunned and speechless while the victim’s mother wept as a jury acquitted him yesterday of second-degree murder.

The now 17-year-old - who testified he was an innocent witness - wouldn’t identify the culprit who fatally shot the 18-year-old Huxtable outside a Jane St. and Sheppard Ave. W. townhouse complex on Aug. 30, 2005.

The teen testified that he feared reprisals against his friends and family so he refused to divulge the identities of Huxtable’s killers. The teen’s best friend and his father were shot in the months after Huxtable’s death, court heard.

Since June 2000, almost half of Canada's soldiers have been receiving a bump in their monthly salary -- the posting's living differential -- for living and working in cities with a high cost of living.

However, the Tory government will put a halt to the payments for soldiers in places such as Toronto and Ottawa.

A self-proclaimed socially progressive person... might not actually want to base his "life philosophy" on the musings of Groucho Marx...

Mr. Warner said he hasn't ripped up his Conservative membership, but hinted that it's not likely he will be staying. "My philosophy in life is not to want to belong to any club that wouldn't have me as a member."

"It's just the way I approach life."

Well Mark, you deep thinker... the actual quote is, "would have me as a member"... but that's what happens when you pull a life philosophy out of the pop culture ether.

Cute mis-quotation... but remember, Marx also famously recounted...

I did a bond tour during the Second World War. We were raising money, and we played Boston and Philadelphia and most of the big cities. And we got to Minneapolis.

There wasn't any big theater to play there, so we did our show in a railroad station. Then I told the audience, that I knew a girl in Minneapolis. She was also known in St. Paul, she used to come over to visit me.

She was known as "The Tail Of Two Cities."

Try that one out at your next Fiberal or NDP fundraiser and... I daresay... Libby Davies will happily rip off your balls.

-- WIESBADEN, Germany -- German police are unable to decipher the encryption used in the Internet telephone software Skype to monitor calls by suspected criminals and terrorists, Germany's top police officer said on Thursday.

Let's get real, folks... you really wanna give Osama and company a free (in more ways than one) ride?

22 November 2007

“Have the strength of knowing that you are in the best position of anyone in the world to make the determination on the evidence that you have here,” Adrian Brooks said, wrapping up a three-and-a-half-day final summation.

“You have the strength of the evidence, the evidence that tells you clearly, loudly there is a reasonable doubt.”

Well... except for the eyewitness account, the DNA evidence and the testimony from the cop in his cell.

And, get this... he kept severed heads, hands and feet around... for what...to make soup?

Don't worry, Adrian... you can probably get Stephane Dion to put in a good word for your client at sentencing.

The prosecution launched its closing arguments in Pickton's murder case, attacking defense claims that other suspects were ignored and that the forensic evidence on the property where he lived -- including skulls and victims' clothing -- were no proof that he was the killer.

"Could you accept that someone else snuck on that farm with a bunch of body parts, bones ... all without him knowing it?" Michael Petrie asked the jury.

Two other Toronto-area Catholic boards of education are studying copies of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy after the Halton District Catholic School Board removed the children's books from its library shelves.

Both the Durham and Dufferin-Peel Catholic boards have said they will also review the popular children's fantasy series.

But, it seems, not quite everybody is on board...

In the U.K., the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams reviewed Pullman's trilogy for the Guardian newspaper in 2004.

Williams praised the books and recommended them to young readers.

"This extraordinary theatrical adventure sets a creative religious agenda in a way hard to parallel in recent literature and performance," he wrote.

-- A -- Well, if nobody puts the brakes on Madman Ahmadinejad... that'd be Tehran...

And, it seems, Iranians in high places are starting to get it.

The attack would be difficult to imagine without at least tacit support from Ayatollah Khamenei.

In a hard-hitting editorial on Wednesday, the Tehran paper said the president's treatment of his critics was immoral, illogical and illegal.

In an autocratic theocracy like Iran, where every piece of news is filtered through the ruling elite... that's a very public slap in the face.

Such a direct personal attack against President Ahmadinejad is indeed rare in official media in Iran.

It shows that the Iranian president is not only losing support among ordinary people because of economic hardship, he is also angering part of the establishment for using the nuclear issue to bolster his personal power.

Iran's former chief nuclear negotiator sharply criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, denouncing the prosecution of a former member of his negotiating team and accusing the hard-line leader of trying to eliminate rivals.

The comments by Hasan Rowhani, published Thursday, were the latest in the blow in the mounting rivalry between Ahmadinejad and former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful figure in Iran's clerical leadership.

-- WASHINGTON -- Massive, devastating air strikes, a full dose of "shock and awe" with hundreds of bunker-busting bombs slicing through concrete at more than a dozen nuclear sites across Iran is no longer just the idle musing of military planners and uber-hawks.

If it wasn't for Lloyd and Bobblehead at CTV... that scary Stephen Harper would have slipped another one past us.

The Conservative government has announced the creation of a 10-million hectare national park and wildlife sanctuary -- an area roughly twice as large as Nova Scotia.

"Truly, a gigantic conservation initiative, not just in Canadian history but indeed around the world," said Environment Minister John Baird, who made the announcement during a news conference in Ottawa on Wednesday.

The designation would protect the massive swath of the boreal forest from diamond and uranium mining in the region that threatens to encroach on the area, would ban sales and leases of property and put new limits on hunting in the area.

Native leaders and environmentalists have applauded the news.

It's curiously absent from their on-line article... but it seems not everyone saw this as a good news story.

On the 11:00 pm television segment on the CTV News... uber-correspondent Bob Fife let us in on the dark side of this development... apparently Prime Minister Harper only did this to cover up his failure to implement Y2Kyoto.